Summary

As expected, President Donald Trump this week requested historically deep cuts to basic research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Energy totaling 13% across the government. He has asked legislators to slash environmental, climate, and applied energy research. Trump’s proposed budget for 2018 would also sharply reduce how much NIH pays universities as reimbursement for the cost of supporting federally funded research on campus. Scientific organizations have denounced the cuts, foreshadowed in a budget blueprint revealed in March, and have some reason to hope that Republicans in Congress will likewise reject them.